Arroyo Seco Bike Path

After a hellish ride to Santa Barbara the previous week, we wanted to do a light ride on Mother’s Day Sunday.  We decided to venture out on our own since all the official training rides were pretty long or hilly.  We wanted to do a ride under 50 miles.  Partly, it was because I wanted to take it easy with my right knee given that I have had a lot of problems with it lately.  Sam suggested that we ride directly from the house, which we’ve never done before.  The plan was to ride north toward Pasadena and then head east as far as we wanted to go, perhaps Monrovia or Duarte.  It felt strange to ride freely without a route sheet.

So we started our ride on the Arroyo Seco Bike Path, which runs parallel the 110 freeway from Montecito Heights to just north of Herman.  I’ve seen this bike path before from the freeway, but I had never ridden on it.  It’s only about 3-4 miles, so it’s not that long.  But it was really cool to finally be on it.  After we got off the bike path, and almost running over some chickens on the side of the road, we rode to South Pasadena and headed north toward the Rose Bowl.  Up until then, the morning had been a bit cold and overcast, but it started to rain right before we reached the Rose Bowl.  We decided to turn around somewhere in Pasadena when we hit 10 miles and took the same route back, making it a 20-mile ride.  Our first ride from the house and it was ruined by the rain.  Argh!

But rain was not the only thing that ruined the day.  When we reached South Pasadena, we had a nasty encounter with a driver.  I was coming to a stop sign and signaled with my hand to turn left.  The impatient driver behind me decided to honk at me.  Usually, I would let it go, but I was in a bad mood and I just lost it.  I mean, I really lost it.  I turned around screamed at her and shouted that by law, bikers are moving vehicles and we can be on the road too.  I might have said other things including the “B” word.  She responded by saying that she’s late.  Oh now I get it.  You’re running late, so it’s somehow my fault because I’m riding on a bike in front of your fancy car (actually, it wasn’t that fancy).  Seriously, lady?  You’re late and you decided to take it out on me?  Are you freaking kidding me?  I wish I had this on video.

This ride is dedicated to these awesome sponsors: Anonymous (2); Bryant Y.; Deborah Y. & Tony Y.; Ingin K.; Jenny H. & Jeff V.; Julie T.; Mark. Y., Bich Ngoc  D., Daisy & Mr. Fox; and Terry C.